Luminescence
by lupinsbloggart
Summary: A compilation of one-shots following the story of James and Lily. A smattering of both au and canon.
1. Dates

Written for tumblr's jilyweek

_Dates_

"What about Bertram Aubrey and Grace Clearwater?" Lily pointed to the pair sitting in the corner booth farthest from the bar.

James stared at them for a few moments, wracking his brain for any morsel of information he could remember about the couple. He could admit that he really didn't know much, but the noisy atmosphere in the Three Broomsticks wasn't helping his thinking process either.

"Come on, hurry up now. We haven't got all day." Lily nudged his foot from underneath the table.

James frowned and nudged her foot back before realizing what he had just done. He grew pink in the cheeks. This was feeling too much like playing footsie. Lily mistook his blush as an admittance of defeat.

"Not so high and mighty anymore Potter, huh? Never underestimate the power of having Mary McDonald as a dorm-mate. The marauders' information database has got _nothing _on her abilities to gossip." Lily leaned back in her chair triumphantly, as if she had already won. She was sadly mistaken if she thought he wasn't going down without a fight though.

"Hold on now Evans, I've got some stuff." He glanced at the couple again, who were giggling over a shared hot chocolate. He turned to Lily and spoke in a clipped, business-like tone. "Bertram and Grace: both sixth year Ravenclaws, been going out for approximately seven months. Were good friends through fourth year, but had a falling out at the beginning of fifth when Grace started going out with that Stevens bloke from Slytherin. Aubrey finally gained the courage to ask her out after Stevens and Clearwater broke it off in-,"

"Ha! Wrong!" Lily interrupted him, slapping the table and causing their empty butterbeer bottles to jiggle violently. "Impressive start, but ultimately wrong. Bertram asked Grace out before she broke it off with her boyfriend. The reason she and Davey Stevens split up was because she said yes to Bertram."

"Damn," James swore under his breath. "I didn't remember that part."

Lily leaned back in her chair, put her hands behind her head and shut her eyes. "I knew you wouldn't. Think twice next time before you bet you know more gossip than Mary McDonald's friend. Now go buy the butterbeers, loser."

James rolled his eyes and fetched two butterbeers from the bar. When he came back, Lily was sitting up tracing designs in the dust which sat on the table. James slid into his chair and placed her drink in front of her. "I've got a new game," he said. He motioned back to Aubrey and Clearwater. "What do you think they're talking about?"

Lily replied with a bored expression. "Aubrey's probably just whispering in Grace's ear that she looks pretty. Its pathetic. What happened to stimulating conversation?"

"I think we're pretty pathetic. All our other friends are off with dates," James mumbled.

"What?"

"Nothing." He pointed to Elaine Chen and Ricky O'Brien, who were all but sitting on top of each other in their booth. "What about them?"

Lily wrinkled her nose in distaste. "Merlin, Potter, they're not even on a proper date!"

James raised his eyebrows in amusement. "What is a proper date, then?"

She raised a finger. "First off, your date is supposed to ask you out at least the day before, not the day of. I heard Ricky and Elaine just found each other in Hogsmeade this morning, and now look at them."

James looked towards the couple in question and thought about how he had approached Lily yesterday about spending the day in Hogsmeade together. When they had found out that all their friends were busy with actual dates, it was just logical that the two of them keep each other company.

Lily raised another finger. "Second, you have to dress properly on a date. Those two look like they just rolled out of bed." James looked down at himself. He had tried to dress nicely today, simply for the sake that he didn't want Lily to think that her friend was a slob. Lily looked nice today too, but then again, in James's eyes she always looked fantastic.

"Third," Lily held out another finger, "you have to _talk_ on a proper date. Just snogging around isn't enough, and frankly, not at all classy. I mean, just look at the two of them. Do they have any self respect at all?" He and Lily, James thought, had been talking all morning long. And he was having fun as well. He couldn't remember the last time he had smiled that much.

"And lastly," a fourth finger joined the others. "You have to eat, or at least drink something on a date. And I'm not saying I promote the tradition or anything, but if you really want to be old-fashioned, the bloke should pay, just like you bought drinks for the two of us…" Lily trailed off as she realized what she was saying, and a violent blush spread down from her cheeks to her neck.

James flashed her a small smile. "I guess we're pretty good at this date business then, aren't we Evans?"

"Hmm," she agreed, "but there's still one thing missing."

"What's that?" James asked, confused.

For a few moments Lily didn't say anything, but when she did, she sent him the most brilliant smile he had ever seen. "Go out with me, Potter?"


	2. Worth the Wait

A bit of a role reversal - Lily is the one doing the chasing

_Worth the Wait_

They're in the library on a Tuesday evening, studying for the upcoming potions exam. Their study sessions, or study dates, as Lily likes to call them (she likes to see him squirm), started about a month ago, when Lily approached James for help in transfiguration. He was a spectacular tutor, and Lily was able to help him with potions after they had exhausted transfiguration. They worked well together, and they took all the same classes, so studying together slowly became a given. Mostly though, Lily just enjoys the chance to spend some alone time with James.

James has a notecard in his hand, and is attempting to quiz Lily.

"What are-," he squints his eyes and brings the card closer to his face. "'What are the sins effects of rising incarrotly brewed serial?'" He frowns and reads it again, as though the words will morph themselves at a second look. "What the hell did you write on these cards Lil?"

"Give me that." Lily snatches the card from under his nose. "It says: 'What are the side effects of using incorrectly brewed Veritaserum.' There's nothing wrong with my cards, thank you."

There is something fundamentally wrong about his appearance tonight, though. "Why aren't you wearing your glasses?" She asks.

"I'm trying something new."

She rolls her eyes. "Being partially blind?"

"You think you're so funny, don't you?" He crosses his arms. "It's called fashion Evans."

"It's not very fashionable not being able to read."

"I can too," he says, and pulls out the next card from the stack in front of him. He holds the card so close to his face it almost touches his nose, and squints his eyes as he attempts to read. "List...the...five...most...," he begins, reading precisely but painstakingly slowly.

"Bloody hell, give the card to me!" Lily exclaims, after thirty seconds have passed and he still hasn't managed to read the ten word sentence.

"No. I'm reading it," he replies, and makes out the next word: "important"

Lily tries to reach over the table and pry the card out of his hand. "Our exam is tomorrow, and it's going to take us all night just to finish one card, at the pace you're going at."

To her frustration, his eyes work well enough for him to see her approaching hand, and he moves the card out of her grasp.

"Be patient Lily, I'm trying my best. And now I have to start over because you made me lose my place," he says, knowing full well that what he's doing is bugging her to no end. "List...the...five-," Lily makes a guttural sound at the back of her throat and lunges across the table for the card.

"I swear to fucking Merlin, Potter, hand over that card!"

"No," he replies, and lifts the card up in the air where she can't reach.

"If you don't give it to me, I'm going to-,"

"You're going to what, Evans?" He replies with a smirk, and he stands up a little in his chair to ensure she won't be able to reach her prize.

"I'm going to-," she begins, but before she can finish her thought (and to tell the truth, she has no idea what she was going to say), they are interrupted by a pointed cough. Lily and James slip back into their seats like two ends of a stretched out coil.

Standing at their table, with her eyebrows raised and a very fake smile on her face, is Lucy Bateson, James's girlfriend.

"James, dear, what's going on here?" Behind her strained smile, it's plain for all to see that she's not impressed with James's choice of study partner.

"Just studying potions," James replies, sending her a look which Lily cannot decipher.

"Oh. It's just that I was passing by your table on my way out, and it didn't look remotely like you were studying potions to me." She takes a hold of his hand that isn't clutching Lily's now crumpled-up card, protectively.

So far Lucy hasn't acknowledged Lily, but after seeing Bateson take a hold of James's hand, Lily decides to make her presence known.

"It's not your fault you wouldn't understand, Lucy," Lily says with a sickly-sweet smile (which looks more like a grimace) of her own. "Potions is quite a difficult subject. You dropped it after last year, right?" Lily knows that her words are severely grating on the sixth-year Ravenclaw's neves.

"You're right," she replies, with steel in her tone and a challenging look in her eyes. Lucy turns to James. "Dear, I'll be waiting for you outside, ok? Hurry up and finish here so we can spend some time together afterwards."

James, who has yet to say anything throughout the girls' exchange, nods. Lucy flashes Lily a triumphant smirk before flouncing towards the large double doors of the library. When she's left, Lily let's out an audible sigh.

"Well, we're done here anyways. We might as well pack up."

James nods again and sends Lily an apologizing cringe as he helps her sort out their study materials. "Sorry about that, by the way. She was being pretty rude."

"It's all right," Lily waves off his apology. She knows she was acting far from pleasant herself. Regardless, it's nice to see James embarrassed on her behalf.

She motions to the mess on the table, which now only consists of her own papers and note cards. "You go ahead. I'm fine here. After all, your lady love awaits you outside." Lily hides the twinge of pain she feels in her chest with a slight chuckle.

James remains resolutely in his chair and stacks up Lily's cards. "Nah," he says. "I'm not really in the mood of spending time with Luce right now. I'll just wait for you."

Lily smiles when he says that. James probably can't understand, but she's been waiting too. Merlin knows how long she's been waiting for him to come round, and there's no guessing how long she'll have to continue to do so, but there's one thing she does know: that this insufferable, most amazing prat is definitely worth the wait.


	3. Accomplishments

Written for tumblr's jily week

_Accomplishments_

"James, I don't think this is a good idea."

Lily and James were in the heads offices on a late Thursday night, finishing up their paperwork before the biweekly prefect meeting the next day. Between filing detention slips and fixing patrols schedules, James had nonchalantly mentioned to Lily his newest prank idea. Suffice to say, she was not as excited as James was.

"Why not?"

Lily looked up from tallying point deductions and rested her chin in her hands. "Because you're head boy, and you're supposed to be a positive example for the other students."

James mimicked Lily's position. "So if no one found out it was me, you would approve?"

Lily frowned. "So long as no one gets hurt, and the prank doesn't take us ages to clean up-because you know thats going to be on us-I suppose it's fine."

She looked down at the parchment in her hand to resume work, but in a few moments looked back up at James, who was wearing a contemplative expression. "Just curious, but why did you even tell me about your prank in the first place? You've never consulted me about them before."

The sort of dazed, distant look on James's face morphed into a hesitant smile. "Because Lil," he said, "this prank is going to be my greatest accomplishment. And I'm going to need some help."

Lily's eyes widened and she sat up. "No. No James. Absolutely no, if I have any idea what you're trying to say."

"C'mon Lily, aren't girlfriends and boyfriends supposed to do things their significant others enjoy?" He went to her seat and grabbed her hand. "Now let's go. It's late enough, and no one will suspect the heads."

Lily remained resolutely in her chair. "But I don't want to help. Girlfriends and boyfriends are also supposed to remind their significant others when they're being children."

"You're right. Lily, you're acting like a child. Now let's go." He pulled on her hand, and after a few moments of indecision, Lily reluctantly got up.

"Just remember I'm only coming with you to supervise you," she mumbled.

James waved away Lily's comment with his hand. "Yeah yeah." He picked up the marauders map from the side table and gave it a quick once over. "The coast looks clear." He turned to

Lily, whose hand he was still holding. "To the kitchens, love!"

Lily muttered and grumbled all the way down the eight flights of stairs from the seventh floor to the basement. (It was all for show, however, because she probably would have followed James anywhere.) Once they arrived in the kitchens, she made it a point to go and greet each and every house-elf individually, just to grate on James's nerves. James, on the other hand, sat waiting patiently for her at Hufflepuff table. When Lily could no longer waste time with the house-elves, she sat at the bench across James and swung her legs, making sure to kick his shins every now and then. She hummed a tune she had made up in her head and licked the hard candy the house-elf Lacey had graciously given her.

James gave her an amused smile. "Enjoying yourself Evans?"

"Yes. I reckon I should frequent the kitchens more often. Without you, of course." She punctuated this with a kick.

James acted as if he hadn't even felt her touch him. "Why would you want to come here without me?"

"Because you scare off the house-elves, you giant."

"I do not scare off the house-elves!" James said, scandalized.

"Yes you do. You're tall, and lanky, and clumsy, and I suppose they're all scared you're going to step on them and crush them," Lily replied matter-of-fact. "But anyways," she leaned in closer across the table. "Why'd you ask me to come with you tonight? Aren't the rest of the marauders supposed to join you in this kind of thing?"

James smiled conspiratorially. "The rest of the marauders are at detention. Besides, they don't know about this. This is just you and me."

Lily's eyebrows shot up. "Oh."

"Oh indeed. Now," James pointed to the staff table, "I need you to charm all the professors' plates."

Lily kicked James's shin. Hard.

"Bloody hell Lil, what was that for?" He tried to reach down under the table and rub his leg.

"I can't believe you just asked me to charm the professors' plates!" She exclaimed, folding her arms across her chest.

James looked at her incredulously. "Can't believe it? Lily I told you what the prank was back in the heads offices."

"I didn't think you'd make _me _do it. Also," she added in a quieter voice, "sorry for kicking you so hard."

"S'alright. But Lil," he all but whined, "I need you to do this. We both know you're better at charms than I am, and this needs to be pulled off properly." He tried to give her his best puppy-look.

Lily wrinkled her nose. "Stop doing that. You only look constipated. And I'll help you, but only because you complimented my charms abilities, and I'm a sucker for praise."

James clasped his hands together in front of him, as if in a prayer. "Lily Evans, have I ever told you that you're an absolute goddess?"

She rolled her eyes and stood up, stretching out her limbs. "I just need to charm their plates to make the professors' skin turn scarlet and gold after eating food off them, yeah?"

"That sounds about it," James replied.

Lily rolled out her shoulders. "This'll be done in just a couple minutes, dear."

Sure enough, not fifteen minutes later, James and Lily were strolling back to the Gryffindor common room, clasped hands swinging between them.

"I agree that the prank was fairly harmless," Lily was saying, "and that the professors will be able to sort themselves out pretty quickly." She stopped and faced him fully. Their clasped hands caused him to jerk back and stop as well. "But don't you think the prank was a bit conspicuous?" She asked. "I mean red and gold? That just screams Gryffindor. Also the magic is really advanced - you had to ask me to do it. And didn't you say the rest of the lads were serving detentions? That only leaves one person. Everyone will know it was you, James Potter."

James flashed her a smile that Lily wasn't sure she altogether trusted. "I told you this prank was my greatest accomplishment Lily. I'll never get caught. If they think it's me, I'll just tell them the truth."

"And what's that?" She asked.

If possible, his grin grew wider. "That I didn't charm the professors' plates. I just watched you."

When James words registered in Lily's brains, she gasped and kicked him with all her strength.

"James Potter, you prat."


	4. The first time for everything

Written for tumblr's jilyweek

_Letters/notes_ or _the first time for everything_

She is startled when the crumpled up ball of parchment lands on her desk. Lily suspects it is probably a note, but notes on her desk are unprecedented. All her friends know that Lily Evans does _not_ pass notes in class. It's not that she's scared of getting into trouble. She's been out past curfew, snuck into the kitchens (and never gotten a detention, thank you very much), but passing notes in class feels so incredibly wrong to her. Being a muggle-born student at Hogwarts, every little fact about magic that she's learned, whether it's momentous or insignificant, has fascinated her. She can't imagine diverting her attention from her literally magical lessons in favor of silly notes from her friends.

So when the note lands on her desk, she can't help but be surprised. Lily glances around the room to find which foolish friend interrupted her from their riveting lesson on corporeal patronuses (which, incidentally, she can already perfectly produce, but that's neither here nor there).

None of the girls is looking her way, but she does see James frantically waving in her direction and pointing towards the note. She's a horrible lip-reader, but even she can tell that he's mouthing "open it!" He has a look of such intense worry and urgency on his face, that Lily's curiosity gets the better of her. She can feel her hand itching to open the note, no matter how firmly against the practice she is. After a few more moments of internal struggle, she can no longer resist, and she snatches up the parchment. There's always a first time for everything, she tells herself, and she unravels it.

**Your shirt's button is open - James**

She looks down, and sure enough, the third button-the one right on top of her bust-has popped open. She blushes furiously and fumbles to close it before anyone else can see.

It's not her fault it popped open. Her alarm hadn't worked that morning, and in her rush to make it to class on time, she had grabbed the first clean shirt she could find. She later realized that the shirt was nearly two years old, from fifth year, and it clearly did not fit her anymore.

She looks back at James, who has a relieved smile on his face, and is nodding his head while flashing her a thumbs up.

She wants to say something back to him-anything-but she can hardly shout across the room, and mouthing words is not at all reliable. So, ignoring her better judgment, she grabs her quill and scribbles a message on the flip side of his note.

_Thanks. But why were you looking down at my shirt in the first place? - Lily_

She throws it over when she's sure Flitwick's back is turned, and James catches it easily, as if he were expecting a response. Her friends notice what she's doing and raise their eyebrows at her, but she ignores them. She's currently only interested in James's reaction.

She can tell he's read it when a faint blush spreads across his cheeks. He rips off some parchment and furiously jots down another note to her.

**Glad I could help. And I swear I wasn't being creepy. It was just accidental eye wandering. **

She opens it and replies without a second thought. She supposes she's been properly corrupted.

_S'alright. You saved me some embarrassment. But do you know I'm strictly averse to passing notes?_

**I do. **

_Then why did you send me one?_

**Why do you keep answering them?**

She looks up at him, and he's got an infuriating smirk on his face. It's all right, she thinks, because she's sporting a pretty wide grin herself right now.

_I've got half a mind to stop, you know. _

After reading the note, he looks up at her, with a glance that says they both know she doesn't plan on stopping. He writes down his response, and is in the process of pulling back his arm and throwing it. But before he can, Flitwick snatches it out of James's hand.

Lily is less disappointed that they have been caught, and more disappointed that she won't find out what James thinks about her half-hearted threat.

"Detention Mr. Potter and Ms. Evans! I will not tolerate note passing during my classes, by the head students no less! I will see you two at eight tonight in my offices."

This is Lily's first detention, for note-passing of all things, but she finds that she is not upset. She looks over at James, and joins him in the amused smile he is sending her. She's had a lot of firsts with James Potter, and she suspects there will be many more, but she's finding she doesn't mind a single bit.


	5. Pictures

_Pictures_

Lily cocked her head to the side. "Is that supposed to be a walrus?"

James paused with his quill nib still on the parchment and scoffed. "Please Evans, stop acting cute. It's clearly not a walrus."

"It certainly looks like one," she persisted. "And you just made a big ink blot on your picture by resting your quill there."

"Just be quiet until I'm done, ok? You're messing me up." James said. Lily rolled her eyes at his dramatics, but listened to him and stayed silent as he drew.

The two of them were currently lounging on the ground of the heads' offices, their backs resting against the scarlet sofa which sat in front of the fireplace. They were supposed to be on patrols at the moment, but when James introduced the marauders map to Lily back in October, she had declared that there was no longer any need to walk around the castle on rounds. Instead, the two of them could just sit in their offices and keep one eye on the map in case of trouble, and spend the rest of the time on productive work. James had readily agreed, and patrols time had been renamed "James and Lily's homework time." However, (and the two of them could not pinpoint how or when this transition occurred) "homework time" soon morphed into "James and Lily's game night." They played everything, from twenty questions, to chess, to muggle card games. That day, when they arrived at the heads' office, Lily declared she wanted to play guess the picture, or charades with drawings. James had hemmed and hawed at her suggestion, but in the end he agreed to play. They had completed six rounds since they started, and it was currently James's turn to draw, and Lily's turn to guess.

For a few moments, the only sounds in the office were the scratching of quill against parchment and the crackling of flames. A few times, Lily tried to peek over James's shoulder to catch a glimpse of his picture, but he made sure his body was angled so that she could see nothing.

"I'm done," James said after a minute of silence, and he turned the picture towards Lily's body.

"Well, what do you think it is?" James asked, when Lily remained silent.

Lily bit her lip and looked from James, to the picture, and back to James again.

"To tell you the truth, I really can't tell. If it's not a walrus, I'm not sure what it is."

James looked at his picture in disgust and tossed it towards the fire. He sat back and crossed his arms. "Bloody walruses. It was supposed to be a cow," he muttered.

"I'm sorry, did you say cow?" Lily asked.

When James grunted yes, Lily burst out into great guffaws.

"That was supposed to be a cow?" She was laughing so hard that she was clutching her sides. "I can just hear the cows around the world mooing in disgrace."

"Not all of us are blessed with-," James began to grumble, but he stopped abruptly.

"Blessed with what?" Lily asked between giggles.

When she got no response, Lily sat up and asked again. "Blessed with what James?"

"Shhh," he waved her away. "Look at the map." The marauders map had originally lain between their legs, but James had pulled it up to his lap and was staring at it intently.

"I thought I saw some movement before-aha, there!" He pointed to a spot on the map. "Bertram Aubrey and Grace Clearwater. See?"

Sure enough, when Lily peered over James's shoulder, she saw the two names hovering somewhere near the astronomy tower.

"Looks like they were having a late night snog. Although I thought Bertram was going out with that Hufflepuff," she noted absentmindedly, leaning back against the sofa.

"Don't you want to go after them?" James asked.

Lily glanced up from her reclined position at James, who was still sitting up and looking at the map with an eager expression. His enthusiasm confused Lily greatly, as James usually wasn't interested in pursuing students.

"Not particularly," she began. "I'd much rather sit here and draw. I already know what I'm doing for my next picture."

James made an agitated sound at the back of his throat. "But we'll be shirking on our duties as head students!" He argued.

Lily looked at him strangely. "And by the time we reach them they'll already have made it back to Ravenclaw tower," she argued back. "I'm quite comfortable here, thank you."

"C'mon Lil," he whined, poking her leg. "It'll be fun! Besides," he added this last part in a quiet voice. "We can pretend we're secret agents when we go catch them."

When she heard this, Lily sat up so quickly that her back cracked. "That's why you wanted to go? Merlin James, this obsession is getting unhealthy."

About a week ago, Lily had made an offhand comment to James about the James Bond films. Ever since then he had constantly grilled her on information about his "fellow James." He had even gone so far as to demand that everyone call him 007.

"I should have known there was a reason you were so keen to go after them," Lily continued. "You've never wanted to do your job this badly before."

James crossed his arms. "It's not an obsession," he grumbled. "Besides, I think Dumbledore would be glad that at least one of us is interested in doing our job." He gave Lily a pointed look. "Also, you owe me this one. I played your ridiculous pictures game with you, didn't I?"

Lily sighed guiltily. He was right on both points. They _had_ been neglecting their patrols duty, and he _had_ gone along with her preferred game that night. She got up, defeated.

"Fine," she said in resignation.

"Yes!" James shouted, and punched the air.

"But," Lily held up a finger. "I refuse to be a "Bond girl." If we do this, we will be partners."

James grinned. "Of course, Evans"

* * *

><p>By the time they reached the astronomy tower (in top secret spy fashion, no less) and scouted out the area around Ravenclaw tower, Aubrey and Clearwater were long gone. James had refused to bring the map with them, insisting that true spies didn't take shortcuts, but relied on their intuition.<p>

Lily groaned when their search ended up fruitless. "I told you there was no point in coming," she complained.

James didn't seem remotely disturbed. "That's all right," he said. "I wasn't ever really interested in catching them, to tell you the truth."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Let's head back then. No point in dawdling about." She turned on her heel and started walking back in the direction they came. Before she could go ten steps however, James grabbed her wrist.

"Not so fast. Aren't you forgetting something Agent Evans?" James asked, with wiggling eyebrows. As James had instructed Lily earlier, a proper spy walked with their backs flush against the wall, on their tip-toes. Lily stared at him with an unamused expression, before heading to the wall and adopting the "spy stance," as James called it.

"Better?" She asked.

"Much. Now, Agent Evans, lead the way."

They walked in the same fashion for the next few minutes, James sporadically muttering some inane comments which he thought sounded "spy-like." Lily, to James's dismay, remained resolutely quiet. When he complained to her about it, she told him that proper spies were silent and stealthy. He didn't open his mouth after that.

As they reached the final turn before their offices, James broke the silence and held out a hand to stop Lily.

"Now it's time for the grand finale," he said.

She crossed her arms. "No," she said.

"No?"

"No, I am not participating in your grand finale."

He opened his mouth to convince her, but when he saw her firm mouth and resolute stance, he decided against it. "Fine," he shrugged. "Suit yourself."

Without another word, he dropped to the ground to do a somersault around the corner. Mid somersault however, he crashed into a warm body. He looked up and saw Professor McGonagall's signature boots. McGonagall looked shocked to see James sprawled out on the stone floor.

"Mister Potter, what is the meaning of this? I went to the heads offices to see if you two were done with patrols, and instead I find you fooling around!"

Lily tried to stifle her laughter as James began turning a deep shade of red.

McGonagall turned to Lily. "Miss Evans, please assist Mister Potter off the ground. And next time, try to check his childish tendencies."

Still holding back giggles, Lily replied with a "yes ma'am," and leaned down to stoop next to James. He scowled at her as she poked his stomach and whispered in his ear, "I told you we should have just stuck to the pictures."


	6. Travel

**A/N: Not my favorite, but I hope you still enjoy!**

_**Travel**_

"Why don't you invite some friends over Lily?" her mum asked, walking into Lily's room with a basket of clean laundry. She was lying flat on her back on her bed, head dangling off the edge, so that her mum looked upside-down. Lily's hair pooled onto the ground, and she could feel her face slowly turning beet red. The pressure from all the blood in her face was starting to feel uncomfortable, but she refused to move.

She sighed. "Yeah mum, maybe I will."

It was only the third week of summer holiday, and Lily was already bored out of her mind. She'd already finished her summer assignments, and there was only so much one could do in the small town of Cokeworth, especially without a friend to keep the company. Her mother's plan sounded perfectly reasonable, but there was a slight hitch - Alice was gone on vacation with her family to Greece, and Emmeline was currently attending her Grandmother's funeral. She could probably wait a few days and invite Em over, but Lily was in need of some instant entertainment. There was one other person, she thought, a person with whom she had formed an unlikely friendship the past school year. Yes, they had become good friends, but were they close enough to be frequenting each other's homes? Lily decided that the answer was a resounding no, and flopped over onto her stomach.

However, after five minutes of playing with her hair and counting the ticks of her clock's second hand, Lily stood up and headed with determination to her desk. She was going to owl James Potter, she decided, whether she liked it or not. Sure, the encounter might be awkward, but awkward was better than boring, right?

They were sitting on the blue sofa while watching the telly. Lily only gave the program half her attention, while absentmindedly tracing the yellow flowers that decorated the might have attempted to watch the show, but the sun was streaming in from the windows just so, so that if she stared at the screen she was really only seeing the dust particles that littered the air. James, on the other hand, was enraptured by the travel show that was coming on. He watched the program intently and unconsciously gripped the edge of the sofa. The program was one of those dare-devil shows, where the explorer traveled to some far off, distant country, and immersed himself in the foreign culture, while simultaneously jumping off cliffs and the like. James would probably fit right into one of those shows, she thought.

After a few more moments of the same, she huffed in exasperation. She could not believe that after all the trouble she went to owl him, they were sitting and watching television.

He had received and sent back her owl Cindy not 30 minutes after she had sent her, and had owled back saying he would be there in ten minutes. When it hit Lily that he would be there in only _ten_ minutes, she had frantically run around the house and tried to tidy up. Needless to say, when he arrived exactly on time, she was slightly out of breath. And the first thing that popped into her oxygen deprived brain after awkward greetings was "Do you wanna watch some television?" She had cringed internally at that. Who asked anyone to watch television when they were over at their house? But James had seemed unfazed, even eager.

"Sure," he had said enthusiastically, and they had both sat down onto the sofa. They had been in the same position for the last half hour, with barely a word passing between the two. Their most stimulating conversation had been a brief:

"Did you see that?"

"Yes it was rather cool."

"I agree."

Lily was almost crying in relief when the familiar tune that signaled the end of the show sounded. She practically jumped to the remote, which sat on the coffee table in front of them, and switched the television off.

Lily turned in her seat and faced James apologetically. "Sorry about that."

"Sorry 'bout what?"

"Making you watch television at my house. I'm sure that wasn't what you had in mind coming over." She was slowly turning red in embarrassment. She looked down at her lap and fidgeted with her fingers.

"Are you kidding me?" James exclaimed. "I loved it."

"You aren't just saying that to make me feel better?" She chuckled nervously.

"'Course not. You know I've wanted a television in the house for years?"

"No way," said Lily. She shifted position, so that her back was to the armrest. She curled up her legs against her chest and rested her chin on her knees.

James was facing her too, and his arm was casually draped across the cushions.

"Oh yeah. Sirius and I read about them in muggle studies a few years back, and ever since we've been bugging mum to buy one for us."

Lily raised her eyebrows, but smiled. "I feel sorry for your mum."

James lazily waved away the comment with his hand. "Don't be. She'd go crazy without me and Sirius bugging her all the time. Anyways, she said that she wouldn't buy it for us because we would waste too much time watching." James subconsciously scooted closer. Lily noticed, but didn't say anything. "Personally, I think my mum's excuse is a load of rubbish. We all know that the muggle technology probably won't work in our house because of all the magic buzzing about. She just wanted it to sound as if not having a television was really up to her."

"Hm," Lily responded. She was paying more attention out of the corner of her eye to James's arm, which was now dangerously close. She didn't realize, but she had also scooted towards the center of the sofa. James had noticed, but didn't say anything.

For a moment there was a lull in the conversation in which the sounds of a distant lawn mower could be heard, but presently Lily asked, "So did you like the program?"

James's eyes lit up. "It was amazing Evans. My family doesn't travel all too much because my parents are always busy with work. I've always wanted to go somewhere really far away. The farthest I've ever gone was the south of France."

At this Lily threw back her head and laughed. In the process, she stretched out her legs and laid them over James's lap. Lily wasn't certain if their relatively new friendship warranted this kind of intimacy, but the atmosphere felt right, and Lily just hoped that James wouldn't say anything about it.

He didn't. He _did_ place one tentative hand on Lily's leg, and the skin to skin contact made her legs burn. She didn't say anything either. With a slight smile, he said "What's so funny?"

"Just that I never thought I would be better traveled than the _great_ _James Potter."_

She supposed he looked sort of adorable when he crinkled his brows like that. "Why's that so hard to believe?"

"I dunno. I guess you've always known more than me about the wizarding world, so it's just different to me that there's something _I _know more about," she shrugged.

"Huh," was all he said, but he stared at her with a strange look.

"Anyways," Lily started, when it seemed as though he would say no more, "my parents have always been fans of traveling. Every summer holiday we go somewhere or the other for a couple weeks, but it's always someplace new."

"Where've you gone?" James asked. "I know you went to Turkey last summer because I heard you talking to Alice about it," he admitted sheepishly. "But where else?"

"Well," Lily began, "the year before that we did a tour of Spain: Madrid, Barcelona, Cordoba. And the year before that-oh the summer before fourth year was incredible." Lily sighed nostalgically at the memory. "That summer we went to Thailand. It was absolutely gorgeous and the food was incredible."

James grinned and wiggled his eyebrows. "Reckon you'll take me somewhere one day, Evans? A poor British boy like me needs a proper world tour guide to lead the way."

A faint blush began to spread over her cheeks. "I-," before Lily could even formulate her thought, the front door burst open with a loud sing-song "I'm home!"

Lily's mother tumbled in with her arms full of groceries, but she stopped short at the scene in front of her. Lily's legs were resting in a messy haired boy's lap, who was resting his hands on her legs, and seemed to be rubbing circles on them absentmindedly. Lily's checks were dusted with a very telling blush, which Mrs. Evans suspected wasn't just caused by her entrance.

"Lily, dear, I didn't know you had a boyfriend over. I'm not upset, but just remember next time to tell me when you invite boys over to the house."

"Yes mum," Lily dutifully replied, before realizing what her mother had actually said. Her eyes widened and she quickly swung her legs off of James. "James isn't my boyfriend mum! He's just a friend!"

"Whatever you say, love," Mrs. Evans replied as she swayed into the kitchen.

Lily sneaked a peek at James, who was sporting an embarrassed smile.

"Sorry. I'm not sure what she was thinking," Lily said, with a shrug and an embarrassed smile of her own.

James replied with a strained laugh. "It's not a problem. But," he turned to look straight at her, and his goofy grin of before was back on his face. "I know how you have to make it up to me."

"Oh yeah?" She asked, intrigued.

"Oh yeah." In a humorously lofty voice, he said, "You, Lily Evans, have to promise to take me, James Potter, on an amazing adventure one day using your traveling expertise." His grin lessened a bit, and his voice became more serious. "I don't care where we go, just that the two of us go together, somewhere, someday." He stuck out his hand. "Is that a deal?"

Lily looked at his face, and looked at his hand, and there was really only one answer that came to mind.

"Deal."


End file.
